Baptismal Covenant

The time changed this morning – Liz and I almost missed the change and would have been late for church. This morning we had some special guests – women from the Plainfield Community Church in Plainfield New Hampshire. The Rev. Suellen Luegers, pastor of the church was our preacher. The women had been here for a week, working in various community outreach programs – some based at St. Mary’s and some nearby. But most important, they brought us quilts which the Episcopal Church Women will give to families in a homeless shelter at the end of our block.

Today we had four baptisms of children – all siblings or cousins. As a result, we got to say the Baptismal Covenant – to my mind the best new thing in the 1979 Prayer Book. We promised, with the help of God,

• to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers,
• to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord,
• to to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ,
• to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourself,
• to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.

We have a fair number of baptisms at St. Mary’s each year, so we get to renew this covenant frequently.

If you Google “Baptismal Covenant Episcopal” you will find that some on the right hand side of the aisle find that the promise to “respect the dignity of every human being” is problematic. In 2007, Canon Gary L'Hommedieu of the Diocese of Central Florida wrote “What is unarguable is the novelty of the final promise to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being." It is this final promise that distinguishes the 1979 baptismal liturgy from all previous ones, apart from incidentals of language. ... It is the final promise that comprises the spirit of the Baptismal Covenant. Or rather, the final promise IS the Baptismal Covenant. ... Even though the language of [the Baptismal Covenant] is purely abstract and non-specific, it typically finds application that is politically motivated and unabashedly partisan, and invariably to the left.”

Canon L'Hommedieu is spot on, save for one thing. He does not acknowledge, perhaps he does not recognize, that opposition to the “invariably left” application of “respect the dignity of every human being” is also “politically motivated and unabashedly partisan.”

I have only recently become acquainted with the relatively new field of cognitive linguistics and cognitive science in general. Central to that discipline is the discovery that most of human thought and reasoning is not conscious, is based of cognitive frames sometimes called metaphors, and, because we exist in our bodies, is embodied and inextricably tied to our emotions. Most of my reading in this field is in the writings of George Lakoff. Lakoff observes that much of our political, and I would say also religious, thought is informed by the metaphor of the family. Now there are at least two models of the family out there. One is the nurturant parent model and the other is the strict father model.

Very recently I read on some blog or other a definition of politics as being about decision making and a refutation that said no, it was about power and who gets to exercise it. In either case, I think I’m right is saying that the ecclesial and theological perspective of both religious progressives and religious conservatives are politically motivated.

to be continued ...

BTW, tomorrow evening PB KJS is speaking at Columbia University, a few blocks from here, and I intend to be there. I hope to report on what she says.

Annual Meeting

Yesterday we had our Annual Meeting at St. Mary's.

I made a motion, which was carried unanimously, that we communicate to our diocesan delegates to General Convention that we urge the repeal of B033. I originally forgot to include support for same sex blessings, but we managed to tack it on before the meeting broke up.

I know that the support of one parish is not terribly significant, but it's important for our small congregation to be reminded of our connection to the wider church.

At one point in the discussion, it was mentioned that St. Mary's was the sponsor of two of the Philadelphia Eleven (the first women in the Episcopal Church to be ordained to the priesthood in 1974, not the 2004 anti-gay demonstrators) and that my signature, as Clerk of the Vestry, appears on the documents sent to Bishop Paul Moore in support of the ordination of Carter Heyward and Emily Hewitt. I mention it only to make the point that we (and I) have been pushing issues for quite a while. It's part of who we are.

I'm put in mind of another part of who we are by MadPriest's recent sermon on Mark 1:9-15. We minister to the marginalized. For several years we operated a weekly soup kitchen -- just over a year ago we urned it into a food pantry. The siginificant point is that a large part of the staff consists of people who first came to us on the food line. Many people from the line have become involved in the church. These days we also provide bag lunches in a Saturday outreach program to homeless people in our general neighborhood.

Three weeks ago, Estelle, a sometime member of our choir, passed away. Her passing was noted by Padre Mickey as well as several others who remember The Ronettes. Estelle is just one of the many fragile folks who have gotten some fellowship at St. Mary's.

S words

In October 2004, the website Radical Calendar said of Fr. Luis Barrios that he “doesn’t hesitate to call God, Goddess.” This past Saturday, February 28, MadPriest, picked up a Living Church story that said that in an open letter, Fr. Barrios said it is his “duty to our Goddess to build a better world.” At the Living Church website, this “news” is dated February 26, 2009. The actual open letter appears on a website where the posts are not dated. The letter itelf is dated January 27, 2009. In a comment to the post at MadPriest, at first I said I did not believe the quote and then I had to admit that it was accurate. In this case, I posted first and googled later – not a good idea. In the course of googling, I came to realize what is going on. Later on, in the comments at MadPriest’s, David [Dah + veed] Allen put it better than I could: “The statement was issued in English and Spanish and it says Our Goddess (Nuestra Diosa) in the Spanish as well. It appears that Padre Luis is an alternating inclusive, using both masculine and feminine language for Our God (Nuestro Dios) in the same passages.”

The problem for me is that “our Goddess” is an imperfect translation of what Fr. Barrios means when he say “nuestra Diosa.” This is partly because English no longer has grammatical gender (differentiated third person pronouns do not constitute grammatical gender.) So “Goddess” is not simply the feminine form of “God,” it has other connotations, especially the form “the Goddess.” Moreover, “-ess” words in general are now problematic for many people.

That said, now that I understand it, I am not bothered by Fr. Barrios’s use of the word “Goddess.”

Of course the pseudo Anglicans of the radical right are all over the story, mostly because of the protest for which Fr. Barrios was arrested, but also because of some of his earlier activism and what I admittedly intemperately call their own inability to comprehend inclusiveness in any form or to tolerate diversity of opinion. But that's to be expected.

Taking Hold

As I noted way back at the end of October, my computer failed just a day after we drove home from Heart Lake through a snow storm that delayed us and turned a three hour trip into an eight hour trip.

The problem was diagnosed as hard drive failure and I paid around $1,000 for data recovery. I bought a new hard drive and I finally got my computer back just before Thanksgiving. In the meantime, I was using Liz’s notebook computer. Well, it soon became apparent that there was still something wrong with the computer, as it kept giving me the blue screen of death. So I took it back to the shop.

I picked it up again on December 3rd; the diagnosis was a software problem. However, I soon began encountering bluescreens again, so I took it back once more. The technician, Irit, took quite a long time to pin down the problem. I was away twice, she had a bad case of flu, but finally, after a good deal of trial and error, she determined that the problem was the video card, which unfortunately is part of the motherboard, so I needed a new computer. Since I had already spent so much on data recovery, I looked hard for a desktop replacement laptop for under $700.

Now I finally have my new computer and have finished the slow process of installing all of the software I normally use. It’s been a long three months. I still have to clean up behind myself on Liz’s laptop and I have a lot of catching up to do. But I don’t feel crippled anymore.

I’m Back

On Monday afternoon, around 4:45 pm, Liz and I arrived home from our Florida trip. I’m very happy we went and especially happy that I got to see my Aunt Joyce and my cousins Eric and Sven in Miami.

When we got home, as we came into the building we saw a notice that our neighbor Bob Seaver, a retired professor at Union Theological Seminary, had died last Wednesday. Then when we up to our tenth floor apartment, we discovered that our next door neighbor, Aimee Scheff, had died early Sunday morning.

Both funerals are this afternoon -- Aimee's at 2 pm at a funeral chapel on 91st Street and Amsterdam Ave. and Bob's at 4 pm at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, at 112th Street, also on Amsterdam Avenue. So they are a mile apart. It remninds me of the time we had invitations to two weddings, one at the cathedral and one at St. Michael's Church, at 100th Street and Amsterdam. It was not possible to attend both weddings, we had to pick one and go to both receptions. It will be possible to attend both funerals.

We didn't have high speed internet access for most of last evening, so we didn't check all of our emails. This morning we saw that there are some delightful new pictures of our granddaughter Amanda. I'll be posting one or two of them later -- as well as some pictures from our trip.

I'm still using Liz's laptop, since mine is still in the shop -- I'm betting I'll need a new one, but until I know definitely whether the problem is the video card or the motherboard, I'll keep hoping.

Greetings to all, especially my cousin Eric my only follower), my cousin Sven, and my Aunt Joyce. Gotta get dreesed for the funerals. Bye.

UPDATE 8:45 PM

We didn't get to the second funeral after all -- we spent the afternoon in a lunch with Aimee's brother and sister-in-law and several Morningside Gardens friends.

Greetings from Florida

My only computer access here on Anna Maria Island is at the library, where I am in competition for computers with several others, but the wait is never too long.

Liz and I are enjoying our vacation so far and we are looking forward to going to Miami tomorrow. We'll visit my Aunt Joyce whom I have not seen for half a century.

I'll have more to say when we are back in New York.

Away to Florida

We're off to Florida for a week.
While we're away, we'll miss author Thomas Cahill preaching at St. Mary's tomorrow, January 25, Prisosn Ministry Sunday in the Diocese of New York.
We'll also miss a special service on February 1 in which the Harlem Episcopal churches will honoe the ministry of Bishop Don Taylor, assisting bishop in the Diocese of New York, on the occasion of his retirement.
Too bad we can;t be in two places at the same time.

I probably won't post anything until I'm back.

Marion Hatchett on the American Church and Anglicanism

The Anglican arrived yesterday. It contains a "Response to the Distinguished Alumnus/a Award at The General Theological Seminary" by Marion J. Hatchett. The whole response is worth reading and I wish I had been there last October to hear him deliver it. Here are the last two paragraphs:

The American Church always seems to jump way out ahead of the Church of England and our other sister churches, and in a number of respects. One was in giving voice to priests and deacons and to laity (as well as to bishops and to secular government officials) in the governance of the national church and of dioceses and parishes. The American Church revised the Prayer Book in a way that went far beyond revisions necessitated by the new independence of the states. From its beginning the American Church legalized the use of hymnody along with metrical psalmody more than a generation before use of "hymns of human composure" became legal in the Church of England. At an early stage the American Church gave recognition to critical biblical scholarship. The American Church eventually gave a place to women in various aspects of the life of the church including its ordained ministry. The American Church began to speak out against discrimination against those of same-sex orientation, and the American Church began to make moves in establishing full communion with other branches of Christendom.

Historically the American Church has been the flagship in the Anglican armada. It has been first among the provinces of the Anglican Communion to take forward steps on issue after issue, and on some of those issues other provinces of Anglicanism have eventually fallen into step behind the American Church. My prayer is that the American Church will be able to retain its self-esteem and to stand firm and resist some current movements which seem to me to be contrary to the principles of historic Anglicanism and to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.

The full talk is online here. The Anglican is a publication of the Anglican Society. 2008 Dues/Subscription = $15 US ($20 foreign) -- I think this is the latest rate -- the figures on the website are out of date.

Updated Friday to point to the text of the paper.

Gratitude

Thanks to Mad Priest several vistors dropped by my blog early this week. I'll be returning the favor and updating my blog roll, but probably not for a couple of weeks -- for reasons stated below.

Here are three other things I am grateful for.

Barack Hussein Obama is now President of the United States of America. Thanks be to God.

There is a ceasefire in Gaza -- or rather two unilateral ceasefires. Thanks be to God.

In about a week and a half I'll be seeing my Aunt Joyce for the first time in about 50 years. Thanks be to God.

Here we are 70 years ago (actually more, since it was in the summer of 1939). As you can see, Aunt Joyce is only seven years older than I. Joyce is my father's youngest sister and the sole survivor among my father and his siblings. She moved to Miami about 50 years ago. Here is a picutre taken while she still lived in New York State. She was a TV personality at the time.


A little more than 10 years ago, I reconnected with Aunt Joyce by email and telephone. I've been meaning to arrange a trip to Florida ever since, but it wasn't until this year that Liz and I got to it.

This coming Saturday, January 24th, we are flying to Tampa for almost a week with Liz's cousin Oliver on Ana Maria Island, just below St. Petersburg. Then we drive to Miami for a couple of days visting Aunt Joyce and part of her family.

I most likely will not be taking a laptop, so I don't know how much internet access I'll have.

I'm grateful that after half a century I'm going to see my beloved Aunt Joyce.

About blogging

It took me five days to write the last post. At first, I didn't know where it was going. I also don't know whether I have an audience, but no matter -- I will press on. I wonder what's next.

Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo wo wo).

Mrs. Robinson will be moving into the White House next week, as will her daughter and son-in-law, along with her granddaughters. I learned about this the other day from the New York Times. I was going to write about it.

On Monday, I learned about another Robinson -- Bishop Gene Robinson has been invited to deliver the invocation at the opening event of the inauguration festivities next Sunday. I first learned it at Of Course I Could Be Wrong and I wasn't sure it was true until I checked The Lead at Episcopal Cafe. At The Lead, Jim Naughton, who apparently broke the story, reports that it became the biggest blog event of the day at 4:30 Monday afternoon.

There were a few other things in the past few days that I wanted to take note of. Last week, our local weekly The Westsider had an aricle about a shelter for homeless LGBTQ teenagers here in New York City. It's not online, so I can't link to it, and we gave the paper to someone in our church who works with homeless people. The article makes the point that for these kids there are more pressing issues than same-sex marriage (or ordination of bishops and other clergy.) Bishop Robinson is quoted in the Concord Monitor as having told Beliefnet "The difficult thing is that [Rick Warren]'s said, and continues to affirm, some horrendous things about homosexuality." The horrendous things that Bishop Gene is referring to lead to horrendous consequences -- as witness the incidence of suicide among LGBTQ youth, the family rejection that many of the homeless LGBTQ youth have experienced, and violence against LGBTQ persons.

On Saturday I learned, also from MadPriest, that a church in my home town had lost its bid to keep the property ater the congregation seceded from the Episcopal Church. The Church of the Good Shepherd, on the south sde of Binghamton, is one of three parishes in the Diocese of Central New York that withdrew from the Episcopal Church at least in part in protest over the consecration of Bishop Robinson in 2003. Good Shepherd, whose rector is Matt Kennedy, is the only one of the three parishes which actually pursued the legal battle to the end (see this article in the Press & Sun-Bulletin.) Monday or Tuesday, I read in a post by Matt Kennedy over at Stand Firm (I will not link there) that they were given a a little more than a month to vacate the premises -- and they had to pay while they stayed. Well, on the church blog Matt reports they have found a disused RC rectory to house the Kennedys. and the gym of a Baptist Church for Sunday worship -- both within less than a mile and a half of their old church.

In a comment at OCICBW last week, Matt Kennedy wrote

Say what you will about me and my parishioners...as you have...but believe it or not, in all sincerity, we believe those who promote same sex sexual behavior are, albeit unintentionally, hurting people by leading them away from Christ.

I certainly believe he is sincere -- I also think he is dead wrong in his approach to the bible and the true nature of orthodox Christianity. I also think he is wrong about Anglicanism, but this is ground that has been contested at least since the days when Richard Hooker and his cousin Walter Travers preached at the Temple Church in the 1570's. I hope to write more about the significance of contested ground, but for now I want to take a close look at Matt Kennedy's statement.

"Those who promote same sex sexual behavior" is an odd choice of words. It isn't about promoting any kind of sexual behavior. It's about affirming people, accepting who they are, and where necessary encouraging them to accept who they are.

Affirming people does not lead them away from Christ. Telling people that God hates what they do when what they do is intimately related to who they are does indeed lead many people away from Christ.

I'll leave it to others to talk about why it is right for Gene Robinson to be a bishop in the Episcopal Church and wrong for Matt Kennedy to teach that same sex sexual behavior is contrary to God's will.

I conclude with part (slightly updated) of a 17th century prayer written when there was contested ground in the church:

O God, the Creator and Preserver of all humankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of people; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.

KJS at St. Mary's (Just Another Sunday)

Situated as we are in the Manhattanville valley, a few blocks from Union Theological Seminary and the Columbia University campus, we get a fair number of interesting visitors at St. Mary's. Just before the 10 AM service this morning, I noticed that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and her husband Richard Schori were in the congregation. They were just visiting.

Today in place of a sermon we had the annual Sunday School Christmas Pageant -- the topic was the Slaughter of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt. Under the direction of Jim White, the slaughter took place in the sacristy, so all we heard were terrible screams. In the last scene, the soldiers had a change of heart -- that is, they repented -- and joined the Holy Family as refugees in Egypt. Then each soldier, or rather each child actor, presented gifts to the baby Jesus commemorating the names and ages of children killed in Iraq. I think the PB was as appreciative of the pageant as the rest of us.

Most of the congregation were not aware that Bishop KJS was there until announcement time, which we have just before the blessing and dismissal.

New Year's Day

Picking up where the last post left off ...
It was a real time away for us -- no internet, no TV news, very little radio news, no newspaper most days. I can't remember when I became aware that all hell had broken loose in Gaza.

I spent most of my personal time reading and trying to write a coherent piece about what I was reading. On the way to Jane and Scott's on Christmas Eve, we stopped for gas in Brattleboro, Vt and bought the New York Times. The was a front page article on Jewish response to the Bernard Madoff scandal. I was particularly struck by a statement made by Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed which is about a mile and a half from our apartment in Morningside Gardens.

In a recent sermon, Rabbi Kalmanofsky described Mr. Madoff as the antithesis of true piety. “I said, what it means to be a religious person is to be terrified of the possibility that you’re going to harm someone else,” he said.

The first time I read that, it struck a chord but I thought that "terrified" was a little over the top. The more I ponder it, though, the less extravagant I think it is.

As we started out from New York on Christmas Eve, I turned on the radio to catch the end of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Cambridge. After I listened to the ninth lesson (John 1:1-14) I mentioned to Liz that I had read a wonderful rendering of John 1:14a at Preludium:

The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood... (1.14a, The
Message)

(As an aside, I had never consciously encountered The Message before and in fact it was only after I got back to New York that I discovered where that rendering came from. In the course of looking The Message up, I found an otherwise perceptive review that oddly thinks the rendering "moved into the neighborhood" is facetious.)

We got to Jane's house too late to go to the afternoon Christmas Eve service at Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier, so we went to another church a little later. -- I won't say which one. We did get to Christ Episcopal Church on Sunday and got to hear the opening of John again. The rector, David Hall, preached a fine sermon. We go to that church whenever we are visiting Jane on a Sunday. and we like it.

While at Jane's, I was also reading Helene Cooper's The House at Sugar Beach, a large part of which is about the bloody events in Liberia that began in April 1980. As I thought about the evils of war as exemplified by the Liberian events, about Rabbi Kalmanofsky's observation that to be religious is to be fearful of inflicting harm on another, and about the Incarnation, which is central to my own religious faith, I contemplated writing a brilliant blog post on the subject -- even though almost no one reads this blog. Since I didn't have my computer with me, I began composing in a spiral notebook.

I got far enough to observe that not doing harm was not enough -- we actually have to do good.

Another book I began reading in Vermont was Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. On Sunday after I learned that Israel had begun bombing Gaza, I was particularly struck by Obama's observation on the difference between values and ideology.

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

Rather than getting into a rant about Israel and Palestine, I just want to observe that it appears obvious to me that the public statements of Israeli officials are dripping with ideology. The statements of the weaker party, Hamas, are also dripping with ideology.

In that article on the Madoff scandal, Rabbi Jennifer Krause said

The Talmud teaches that a person who only looks out for himself and his own interests will eventually be brought to poverty.

I believe that principle extends to security -- even national security.

The End of the Year

A week ago, on Christmas Eve, Liz and I left New York and drove to Jane and Scott's house in Vermont. We had a great time there, not least because we got to spend a good bit of time with our granddaughter Amanda. On the way home we stopped first and ahd lunch and a nice visit with Liz's brother and sister-in-law Peter and Cynthia. Afterwards we drove on down to the Berkshires and spent the night with our friends Roger and Holly, who are building a house near where Holly grew up. Finally we drove home, getting here midafternoon on Tuesday the 30th.

More to come.

The first week of December

Let's see.
Barack Obama named Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.
A group of former Episcopalians and others formed what they call a province of the Anglican Church in North America, but which is in fact a new denomination.
The Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles promulgated a rite for the blessing of same sex blessings.

Closer to home:
I picked up my computer, but it has crashed again. Probably I need to have Windows reinstalled.
On Saturday evening, Liz and I went to dinner in a Venezuelan restaurant with four three generations of the family of a friend of Liz's from her Union Seminary days. It was in honor of the birthday of the friend's granddaughter. Among the party were a female same sex couple who attend another St. Mary's Church -- this one in Rockport. MA. It was fun talking to them, and I'd like to get better acquainted.
Not technically part of the first week, on December 7th at St. Mary's, the celebrant was the Rev. Patricia (Patty) Ackerman. Patty was at St. Mary's as a seminarian, and has been actively ivolved on several progressive fronts. The Gospellers were Lysander Puccio and Miguel Escobar (we hear the gospel in both English and Spanish.) The sermon was by Betty Reardon, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. During the service I counted seven known lesbian and gay people among the thirty or so people there. I think there might be others, but my gaydar isn't what it used to be. In an interesting and unplanned way, this service was St. Mary's answer to the "Duncanites."

It's Monday morning, and I'm off to the computer shop again.

My Computer

I got my computer back last Thursday, after three weeks without it. Then, the same day, it crashed again with a blue screen. I took it back to the shop and am again working with Liz's laptop, but not before I had managed to get almost all of the files I need backed up -- either on external media or on Liz's computer.

I feel curtailed in two or three ways -- first, although I now have access to my files, in order to use them effectively I would have to take over Liz's computer. Second, projects I was working on during the summer and into the fall are now at a standstill. Third, I am limited in what I can take on new. In short, I need my own computer.

Morningside Heights and Harlem Delights

From our terrace in Morningside Gardens I can see parst of Grant's Tomb, Jewish Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary, Corpus Chrisi Church, the Interchurch Center, Teachers College, Barnard College, Columbia University, and look across Harlem on 124th Street. Nearby, but out of sight from our apartment are Riverside Church and the Manhattan School of Music.

On Friday evening, Liz and I attended an evening of opera scenes at Manhattan School of Music (MSM). MSM does this twice a year and we have attended many times over the years. This year the theme was Opera as Politics -- the evening began with a scene from Donizetti's Maria Stuarda dramatizing the final rift between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Suart Queen of Scots. There were several fine musical moments in the evening. I want to take note of two dramatic highlights.

I especially enjoyed an excerpt from Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe -- the end of the second act in which Hanna pretends to be engaged to Camille. I don't think I have ever scen this operetta performed in German before. The portrayal of Danilo by Chris Lucier seemed to me to be the best I have ever seen -- in part because the scene plays better, to my ears at least, in German than in English translation.

The Merry Widow was the applause machine that ended the first part; the evening ended with another applause machine -- because of its staging: the election campaign scene (Act III, Scene III) of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, in which William Jennings Bryan comes to Leadville during one of his presidential campaigns. MSM cast the sole Black member of the ensemble as Bryan. It was brilliant stagecraft and musically satisfying as well.

Wednesday Jury Duty

Today I started jury duty at 100 Centre Street -- the Criminal Court Building in New York City.

When I first got the summons for September 11 this year, we were planning to stay at Heart Lake for several weeks so I took advantage of an automatic deferment option. I was presented with the choice of deferring for anywhere from two to six months. I knew we would back in New York in November, so I chose to defer for two months.

The work on my dental implants is taking place only on Wednesdays, and I knew when I got the jury notice for November 12 that if I got on a case there was a likelihood that I would be tied up not only today (a Wednesday) but also next Wednesday. As it happens, I am currently part of a group undergoing voir dire on a case that is scheduled to hear evidence next Wednesday. I have an appointment next Wednesday and if I get on the jury I will have to reschedule it. I will know by the end of tomorrow whether I am on the jury or not.

Over the years, I have been on several juries -- the ones that stand out in my memory are murder, drug sales, and robbery in state criminal court and two interesting federal cases: a complaint against the City of New York and several corrections officers of assault on a prisoner and a wire fraud case (involving gold plated silver replicas of Chinese gold panda coins) before Judge Michael Mukasey.

I have also been empaneled but not selected on several cases, too. So I really don't care whether I am chosen -- on the one hand, a trial is fun, on the other hand, I have plenty to do and I don't need to be on a trial for entertainment.

Saturday Rambling Thoughts

There's lots of big news this week. And there has also been some small developments in my own life.

First, of course, is the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. I first voted for president in 1960. The country has come an amazing distance since then. I heard one commentator mentioning the difference in perceptions between people over and under 45 -- I think the magnitude of the change resonates more for those in my generation -- the pre boomer generation who lived through the civil rights movement of the late 1950's and the 1960's.

Second, the anti equality votes for LGBT people in California and elsewhere is disappointing. The struggle continues.

Third, the vote by the Diocese of Quincy to align with the Province of the Southern Cone, while expected, is saddening.

In my own life, the most pressing matter is the death of my computer. As I noted in an earlier post, the computer failed over a week ago, on October 29. Since I have Liz's laptop to use, I took my time deciding what steps to take. I finally decided to take it to a place on Broadway near 32nd Street that offers both computer repair and data recovery services. On the repair side, they told me that the hard drive was damaged, so I asked for a quotation on data recovery. When that quote came back at $925, I realized I had some hard thinking to do.

I called the shop that sold me the computer and they tried hard to sell me a new laptop with similar power for over $1,800. I'd love to have a powerful new computer, but I don't want to spend that kind of money this year for reasons that are probably obvious to everyone. So I did a little more investigating.

I found a recommendation to remove the hard drive and put it in a USB drive enclosure, so I rushed out and bought an enclosure so that I could try to recover the data myself. Then i went to the repair shop to pick up my laptop. While I was there, the technician asked me whether I had considered repairing the computer. She said that if I provide a new hard drive, she can reinstall the operating system for $150. At the same time, she told me what kind of hard drive to buy -- and I learned that I had bought the wrong enclosure for the damaged drive.

I know I am going to go ahead, buy a new hard drive, and have the computer repaired. I am still undecided about whether to attempt data recovery myself, or simply to pay for the recovery.

The Struggle Continues

Liz and I went over to vote a little after 10 am -- there was quite a line and we finally voted at about 11. I had every intention of following Tobias's Election Gospel Challenge but there were too many friends in the line for me to concentrate on reading Matthew -- I only got up to the verse where Joseph names the baby Jesus. Like Counterlight I voted for Obama, and for my State Senator, Bill Perkins, on the Working Familes line, but I did not vote for US Representative, Charlie Rangel. Instead I voted for Craig Schley -- it was a protest vote because Rangel consistently supports real estate interests over the objections of our local community.

As I heard Howard Zinn say recently, I voted for Obama -- with trepidation. He talks as if there are no poor people -- it's all about "middle class." A tax cut for everybody making less that $150,000? Come on! Last night at St. Mary's food pantry they gave out 50 packages of food in a little over an hour. Because it was the first Monday of the month, that was a low amount -- the week before, the last week of October, it was 80 packages.

Remember, whoever wins, the struggle continues.

All Saints Sunday

Yesterday at St. Mary's we had a baptism -- an interesting way to celebrate All Saints. On the first Sunday of the month, we have a custom of "Prayers for Baptismal Anniversaries, Birthdays and other special occasions." This comes before the Peace -- and yesterday it took place directly after the baptism at the font. November 2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of my attending St. Mary's.


I don't remember which Sunday I first went there -- but I think it must have been November 16th. I met Rex late election night -- in the small hours of Wednesday, November 5, 1958, and went with him to evensong at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the following Sunday, November 9th. So I probably went with him to St. Mary's the Sunday after that. It's been a long time and it makes St. Mary's the second longest constant place in my life. (The first is Heart Lake in Susquehanna County Pennsylvania.)

A Tough Week

On Sunday, October 26, after Liz and I went to St. Mary's for the first time in many weeks, we drove back to Heart Lake for what was intended to be our last regular trip of the season. After conversation on Monday with our contractor, we have determined that we will make another trip (either a day trip or overnight) within the next couple of weeks.

Monday night it started to snow. We were planning to close up Tuesday anyway, and return by way of Binghamton, but weather conditions in the morning determined us to skip the Binghamton part. I drained the water and we loaded the car and were on the road before 11:30 am. The trip took eight hours (normally it takes around three hours.) I went almost direct from the car to a board meeting which lasted until 11:00 pm.

On Wednesday my computer died. Since I use a high powered laptop instead of a desktop, there are complicated issues around repair and recovery. I don't have a current backup of my data -- my backups are at least four months out of date.

Right now I am using Liz's laptop, so for current things I am ok, but I did an awful lot of data entry over the summer -- mostly family history and other genealogy data. I don't want to have to redo all of that. Also my Quicken files -- although I could reconstruct them from paper records I certainly don't want to. There are pictures, however, for which there is no backup or way to recover them except from the hard drive.

I think my problem is that Windows is corrupted, but I am not geeky enough to be able to tell. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for data recovery if I can do it myself, but I also don't want to risk losing my data. So I am actively researching theissue before I do anything. More later.

Home Turf

I have been seeing where the links took me. I started on Saturday at Mimi's Wounded Bird and Wednesday I ended up at JaneR's Acts of Hope. Along the way I hit several blogs that were at least somewhat familiar to me.

When I looked at JaneR's bogroll, I found myself using, for the second time in this exercise, the expression "home turf." Let me explain. I am by temperament more of a lurker thatn a participant in blog conversations. I only really started looking at blogs with any consistency during the spring and summer of 2006, in the lead up to General Convention that year. I soon zeroed in on a small set of blogs that I read faithfully -- in fact, at first only two -- Father Jake Stops The World and Of Course I Could Be Wrong. At those sites I became familiar with the comments of a numbers of people who comment, or did at that time. These folks constitute the core of what I think of as "home turf."

Some of them are listed on my blogroll, but that roll is sorely out of date. I have slowly been adjusting it, but that takes a degree of concentration and discernment that exceeds what I can muster right now.

I began this blog two years ago with a post on October 23, 2006, in which I said "Yesterday I went to my home church, St. Mary's, for the first time in more than 12 weeks." Once again, it's been twelve weeks since I have been at St. Mary's. I won't be there this Sunday either. St. Mary's is truly my home church -- I first went there 50 years ago, in 1958 -- most likely my first Sunday there was November 16, 1958 -- so I am just four weeks away from my fiftieth anniversary. The reason I won't make it to St. Mary's this Sunday is that there are strong reasons for Liz and I to remain at Heart Lake for a day longer than we had planned.

Heart Lake is also home turf to me. I was conceived within 100 yards of the desk where I am writing this. I know that, because when I came out to them in the spring of 1958, my parents, for some reason, told me. This year we have been here since the beginning of July and were planning to shut down this Saturday, October 18. As it happens, though, we are having some landscaping done and it will go on through Sunday, so we have decided to stay on until Monday morning.

Finally, Morningside Gardens and our apartment is another home turf to me. I'll be back there on Monday and will be based there for the next seven to eight months. I'm eager to be home -- and at the same time sorry to leave here.

But back to home turf on the intertubes -- that travels with me.

More links

I decided not to linger over Andrew Plus -- most of his recent posts are more serious than I want to tackle right now. So I'll move on to the blogroll. At the top is A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian, so I'll go there. For a change I think I'll scroll down to see who has commented on a post. The first comment I find is by The Wayward Episcopalian whom I have already visited. The next two comments (on a post about Anne Holmes Redding, the priest who has become a muslim) are from people who seem interesting in their own pright, but don't have blogs that interest me right now. Next are two comments on a post about Father Geoff Farrow -- the first is a reference to the fact that Grandmere Mimi has posted on the topic and the second is from someone without a blog.

Moving on, I find no other comments without going to "older posts", so I go over to the blogroll. The first entry is A Guy in thePew, Chuck Blanchard, whose current posts are understandably political. He picked up from another site a wonderful bumper sticker: Micah 6:8, Obama '08. On reflection, he states that he has reservations about it, for good reason, but I think that this particular bumper sticker does not point towards a theocracy. In any case, I checked out the blogroll at A Guy in the Pew and the first real bog that I had not visited in this cycle was Caught By The Light, by Richard Helmer. Richard's most recent post is a sermon from a few weeks ago, so I move on again, to Acts of Hope by JaneR. Here I am back on home turf, for reasons I'll go into in my next post.

Following the links

Sunday mornig, October 12, I was all set to continue blogging about following links. However, I got distracted into setting up "My Blog List" and "Blogs I Follow." I need to do a lot more housekeeping on the blog and I will do that over the next few weeks (or, to be honest, possibly the next few months.)

On Monday, October 13th, Liz and I went Binghamton for errands and to visit relatives. This morning, we're back at the lake with just a few more days until we have to close up for the year. But I have some time, so I'll go back to following the links.

When I left off I was looking at Noble Wolf's Blog List. The first, that is -- most recent -- entry was for Counterlight's Peculiars which i was intending to go to next anyway. I first met Counterlight at Father Jake's, before Jake stopped stopping the world. On Saturday, Counterlight had a great post called No More Martyrs on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepherd.

Counterlight has been blogging since June of this year -- he's been commenting on other blogs for much longer. Perhaps in a later post I will linger longer over individual blogs -- today, however, I'll move on. In Counterlight's "Blog Friends and Favorite Links," the first I haven't visited recently is The Three Legged Stool --its name identifies it as Anglican. It turns out to be the blog of James, another name well know from comments on other blogs. At The Three Legged Stool, James has a post n the convention of the Diocese of Western Louisiana. In accordance with my aim here, I will move on.

Starting at the bottom of The Three Legged Stool's "Links of Interest," I find The Wayward Episcopalian -- a blog by a senior at Dartmouth College. His most recent post is on a visit of the Presiding Bishop and the Diocesan, Bishops Katharine and Gene, to the Dartmouth campus. He can be forgiven for calling Bishop Katharine "Very Reverend" rather than "Most Reverend." I move on, as usual.

At the bottom of "Episcopal Links and Blogs" at The Wayward Episcopalian, I find The Reverend Boy, another blogger known to me. I wasn't going to, but I left a comment there. And now I'll move on.

At the top of the Reverend Boy's Blogroll is Andrew Plus, the blog of a priest in the Diocese of Bethlehem, the diocese where I am physically located right now. It's getting late in the day and I'm tired, so I'll start off the next post with Andrew.

Surfing Blogs

My silence over the past few weeks does not mean that I have been hibernating. Liz and I have been busy in many spheres -- in the past two weeks we have been in New York (and St. Louis) more than we have at Heart Lake. On Thursday, we came back to Heart Lake for ten days -- the end of our season for 2008. Every day, I check a few blogs --but outside pressures have occupied me and I have not found the time to write a coherent blog post. This morning, I do have some time and I am taking a new tack -- I'm going to blog as I surf.

First, I like to check the news -- today I went to Thinking Anglicans first and found coverage of the events in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Next I went to The Lead at Episcopal Cafe. There was coverage there of the hearings in the California Supreme Court on a church property case in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Then I checked in on Mark Harris at Preludium -- Mark seems to be marking time and has not had anything new since October 8th.

Over at Mimi's Wounded Bird I found a link to new blog called Father Geoff Farrow -- the name of its author, a courageous Roman Catholic priest in California who is defying the hierarchy and urging people to vote against Proposition 8 (which would ban gay marriage in the state.) It was this blog and its comments that inspired this post on following the links. One of the commenters on Father Geoff's blog was Michael-in-Norfolk, who has a blog of that name. Michael is a gay lawyer in Virginia who came out in mid-life. His blog has posts dating back to 2006 -- his recent posts (apart from daily"male beauty") deal mostly with politics and are anti McCain and Palin.

I decided to check out Michael's blogroll. The first link was to 1Body2Souls -A Gay Confession. This turns out to be a gay Indian man who describes himself as "living as a straight guy." He tells us that "being gay is punishable by law in India." He signs his posts Manav Desh and his blog is liberally sprinkled with pictures of guys. I found his blogroll too hard to follow so I tried the next on Michael's blog roll: Aman Yala, written by Sandouri Dean Bey(who signs himself Dean) and described as "reflections of a gay Greek-American musician in search of a hamam." The final post on this blog was dated Septemeber 27. A look at the archive list indicated that this was September 2007. I went to the comments on this last post and found the name Christopher. I thought it might be someone I recognized so I clicked on it and was led to Betwixt and Between. This is a blog I have visited before. Christopher is a gay Episcopal lay person in San Pablo, California, partnered with a German Lutheran pastor. He is a Benedictine Oblate-Novice and I have sometimes wondered if he is acquainted with Liz's (and thus my) aunt, Adele Hanson, who lives in Berkeley and is associated with a Benedictine Community in Oakland. Christopher's posts are generally llong, serious, and well thought out. His blogroll is also long and includes some blogs that have Morningsider on their rolls. He also has a section "Queer Takes" and links, for example to Boys Are Ugly But So Cute -- the personal blog of a very young man named Ryan.

For reasons I don't want to elaborate on, I decided not to follow that path any longer. I slept on it, and in the morning (Saturday the 11th) I decided to go back to Father Geoff's blog. In an open letter to his parish community Father Geoff said that he has been suspended as a priest by his bishop. When I checked, the first comment was by Brian R whose name I didn't recognize but who is gay Australian Anglican whose blog Noble Wolf has links to many of the blogs I normally read. Brian also has a post on the Last Night of The Proms which endears him to me.

I shouldn't be surprised that if I started with Wounded Bird I would end up back on home turf, so I am bowing to the inevitable. In the next installment I will visit one of the blogs on Brian's roll that is not that familiar to me (though the blogger, as a matter of fact, is familiar to me from comment threads.)

End of Summer Thoughts

For most of the past three weeks I have unintentionally fasted from blogs. Friday morning my inbox contained the news, from Episcopal Life Daily, that the House of Bishops, meeting in Salt Lake City, had voted to depose Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh. This led me to check out a few of the more (Anglican) news oriented blogs -- The Lead at Episcopal Cafe, Preludium, and Thinking Anglicans. I can easily get caught up in reading about this essentially uninteresting (from one point of view) development, and I can also be tempted to write about it. But the truth is, Bishop Duncan and his followers in the Diocese of Pittsburgh are going to do whatever they do -- and the faithful Episcopalians in the diocese will do what they have to, with the aid of the rest of us and of the national church.

I am not a expert on any of the issues, but I am a reasonably well informed layperson and I know that just about every claim made about "the faith one delivered" is contestable. Similarly, just about every statement about the true nature of Anglicanism is also contestable. I am bold enough, however, to make the following observations.

First, in the 1789 Preface to the American Book of Common Prayer, the indebtedness of this Church to the Church of England is acknowledged. It is also stated that "this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of of doctrine, discipline, or worship; or further than local circumstances require. This preface has been reprinted in every successive revision of the prayer book up through the latest revision in 1979. From this, I take it that we can look at the history of the Church of England before 1789 to gain an idea of what constitutes Anglicanism.

Second, in Article Thirty Seven of the original Thirty Nine Articles, is the sentence "The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England." Note that the title of Article Thirty Seven is "Of the Power of the Civil Magistrates," and that it begins "The King's Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England." Since the articles deal elsewhere specific doctrinal issues, it's clear to me that the thrust of the sentence on the Bishop of Rome is to underline the national character of the Church of England -- the fact that it is autocephalous, if you will. And if the Church of England is autocephalous, so to is the Scottish Episcopal Church, the (US) Episcopal Church, and indeed all of the churches in the Anglican Communion.

Third, along with autocephaly, the Church of England, under Elizabeth I and her successors, exhibited both comprehensiveness and controversy. I think it's fair to say that Anglicanism characteristically treats a wide range fo theological and doctrinal differences as adiaphora -- things indifferent and not central to the faith.

Fourth, the claim of the schismatics, like Bishop Duncan, that the Episcopal Church has fallen into apostasy is just rhetoric, and warmed over, if superheated, rhetoric at that. The evidence they adduce is either a kind of inverted proof-texting from sound bites of utterances by, say, the Presiding Bishop, or the citation of various "clobber" passages from scripture. The problem is, that the issues they allege are matters for serious debate within the church, and they have prejudged the questions and avoided the debate.

Finally, as to the deposition of Bishop Duncan, I see a number of topics for consideration:

• Deposition is merely removal from office -- namely that of Bishop of the (Episcopal) Diocese of Pittsburgh
• "Abandoning the communion of this church" means the Episopal Church -- what some of the schismatics call, sneeringly but correctly, "the General Convention Church." It is a juridical, not necessarily a theological abandonment.
  
• The canonical question as to whether the House of Bishops acted properly was resolved in the only way possible under our polity -- by a vote of the bishops. To be sure, this is a circular process, but it's the only one we have.
• The factual question as to whether it was necessary to wait for a definitive action by Bishop Duncan was resolved, as one bishop wrote, by deciding to take Bishop Duncan at his word as to his intentions. Subsequent events demonstrate, unquestionably, that indeed he is as good as his word.
  

Having writtenl this, I do not know whether I will return to a fast from blogland or not.

Ho Hum

At The Lead (Episcopal Cafe) Jim Naughton references Mark Harris's piece at Preludium on the communique from the GAFCON Primates Council.

They have set up something called the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans - FCA. Now one of my ancestors, Rev. Francis Marbury, was what might be called a confessing Anglican. He was jailed in 1578 and inhibited in the 1590s for his presumption in telling off bishops. (He held the outlandish view that parish clergy should know something -- that is, be educated.) His daughter Anne married a fellow named William Hutchinson and was later thrown out of the Puritan church in Boston and exiled to Rhode Island for her teachings -- she was called an antinomian but since she left no writings it is hard to determine exactly what she taught.

Back to the FCA -- I was taught that we Episcopalians, along with other Anglicans, belong to a credal church and not a confessing church. That's part of what the Winthrop Fleet and the later English Civil War in the seventeenth century were about. It's also why there is a Scottish Episcopal Church, which with the consecration of Samuel Seabury launched the Anglican Communion.

But what does the communique (including the announcement of the FCA) really amount to? To me it seems to be simply the logical next step in a process of separation that has already begun. The self described reasserters -- the ones who define orthodox as that which has long been believed -- are going their own way and given the nature of their views it is not surprising that they want to invite others to join them. But we knew that -- we've known it for a long time.

And let's be honest -- we too are going our own way too. There is still struggle within both secular society and the church to achieve full equality -- racial equality, gender equality, sexual orientation equality. I'm much more interested in those struggles than in the internal behavior of those on the other side of those struggles. Si se puede!

So the GAFCON Primates Council issued a communique. Ho hum.

Obama

This isn't a political blog but --- . This week Liz and I watched the Democratic Convention -- the first four days we watched mostly on PBS -- we watched the roll call moment when Sheldon Silver introduced Hillary who made the dramatic motion to nake it unanmous on ABC -- because we don't have cable here at Heart Lake. Last night, however, we went to the Montrose Theater to see the last few hours of the convention on a big screen, via CSPAN.

Yesterday on Democracy Now, Ralph Nader told us what was wrong with Joe Biden (stressing a bad consumer credit law) and complained because the Democrats are not far enough to the left. An Obama presidency won't be anywhere near as satisfactory as I (and many people who think as I do) would like. That's mot a reason to vote against Obama.

Earlier this year, I was in a room with Dave McReynolds of the War Resisters league and former Socialist candidate for president (1980 and 2000) and Green Party candidate for Senator (against Schumer in 2004.) In speaking of the Democratic field, Dave said, "We can't always get what we want -- we have to take what we can get."

There are good reasons to wish Barack Obama were more progressive (I don't have a better word) but as Al Gore said last night it was wrong in 2000 to think there was no difference between the candidates and it's wrong in 2008.

President Dwight Eisenhower ( who warned us against the military industrial complex) told us that we need changes in the way we elect the president. As I recall he advocated a parliamentary system. We need ways to strengthen minor parties -- proportional voting and representation would be a good start. But for now, we have two viable candidates for President.

So last night I decided (with Liz) for the first time in my life to put a political bumper sticker on our car. We're also going to put up a lawn sign for Obama here at Heart Lake -- something we've never done.

Today on Democracy Now, actor Wendell Pierce, echoed by professor and Baptist minister Michael Eric Dyson, said in effect that Obama does not get a free pass -- we have to keep pressure on him. But first, we have to elect him.

Coming Up and Looking Around

I can hardly believe that it's been nearly three weeks since I last posted. After I returned from the trip to Maryland and my subsequent dash to New Yorkm Liz and I spent about a week getting ready for guests, then we had Jane Scott and Amanda here for five nights, followed by Liz's sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Ross (both visits were very pleasant but they are not my present topic.) Then I went again to NYC for an overnight trip and there were things to do after I got back. At last I have a little time to come up for air -- and settle myself internally.

Last week, I wanted to post a reflection inspired by Tobias Haller's Crumbs. Inspired by a question on the House of Bishops / Deputies list, Tobias reflects on last week's Gospel – the story of the Canaanite woman who implores Jesus to heal her daughter of a demon as told in Matthew 15:22-28. Jesus says to her “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” and she replies “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Tobias tells us that the question on the HOB/D list was basically, “Do gay and lesbian persons really mean the same thing ‘we’ do by monogamy?”

Time overtook me in two ways -- the second and most obvious is that events
overtook me and I simply didn't have enough time to write a coherent post. The
first was that as I was writing last Sunday -- August 17 -- I suddenly realized
that it would have been Rex's 82nd birthday. That realization caused me to struggle with exactly what I was going to say -- particularly on the question raised on the HOB/D list. Rex and I were a genuine couple from the time we met in November 1958 to the time of Rex's death in February 1973. We shared a household, had somewhat commingled finances, were physically intimate, attended both church and opera together, and had many shared interests. But Rex was promiscuous - I had to content myself with the thought that he was faithful to me in his fashion. Was that monogamy in the sense that the HOB/D questioner meant it?

When I first read the question, I thought it was worthy to be included among MadPriest's Homophobic Quotes of the Day. Not knowing who asked the question, I can at least say that it is grounded in a homophobic stereotype. It's worth reading Tobias' post and the conversation in the comments -- but for my part I have to say that I do not think that sexual infidelity is necessarily destructive of a marriage (same-sex or otherwise) -- and yet sexual fidelity is the ideal to which all marriages should aspire.

That was not the reflection I had intended to write -- I was going to speak about the notion of crumbs -- but that will have to wait.

It's not even the post I intended to write when I started again this week -- that, too, will have to wait.

Whew!

Monday & Tuesday August 4th and 5th

Whew! Or, rather, almost whew! Yesterday evening just before 7 PM Liz and I got up from the dinner table in Columbia, Maryland and drove the 259 miles from my cousin’s house back here to Heart Lake. Yahoo Maps said it would take four hours and 24 minutes and they were just about spot on – thanks be to God. Today I have to go to NYC for a meeting of the Tenant Selection Committee, which I chair. Tomorrow I return and we’ll see how long I can put off going again for the mail.

My head is swirling with impressions from the weekend. Getting to know my cousins better, going to the memorial for my aunt, looking at memorabilia, all this makes a grand mix to process.
Then there’s the return to life here and the trip to New York later today.

Yesterday the Lambeth Conference wound up. Bishop Gene celebrated the Eucharist and preached at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow. When I got up this morning I logged on to Wounded Bird – because I love Mimi and because she has near the top of her blog links to a number of sites about Lambeth. She pointed me to the story of MadPriest’s adventure – MP and fellow (or maybe genuine) Geordie TheMeThatIsMe went to Scotland to see and hear Bishop Gene.

I urge you to watch and listen to Bishop Gene’s sermon. He preached on two of the texts of the day – Jacob’s wrestle with the angel and the feeding of the five thousand – a wrestling match and a picnic. Two things he said in the sermon struck me particularly – one, as MadPriest noted, is the concept that most Christians think we are on the Selection Committee whereas we are really on the Welcoming Committee. That one was easy. The second is a little harder – speaking of the church, he pointed out that God is a welcoming committee of one, and by virtue of our baptism we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. That, too, is not a problem for me – but I do have a problem finding satisfactory words to discuss our (as Christians) welcome of those who are not baptized – for example, my cousins.

{written Monday and posted Tuesday]

Sunday in Columbia

Yesterday there was a memorial service for my Aunt Edith in a Unitarian Universalist Church here in Camp Springs, Maryland. Liz and I had driven down on Friday from Heart Lake -- the trip took us well over five hours, Yahoo Maps said it would take four and a half hours.

We're staying with my cousin Vicki in Columbia, Maryland and will be leaving towards the end of the day to drive back to Heart Lake. My cousin Gary is also staying here -- its good to be in touch with family. Aunt Edith had six children -- her daughter Meg died in 2000 of a brain tumor -- of the five left, four are in the capitol area and have been around. My grandmother had sixteen grandchildren, fourteen of us are still alive, Gary and I were the only cousins who were able to make it.

Liz and I are missing church today for the first time in months -- this is a time when being with my secular family is more important than trying to get to a church service. Edith was a Unitarian for most of her adult life -- as a child she was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church and she was married at All Saints Episcopal Church in Johnson City, New York, her home parish.

Edie's son Max worked in New York for a short time in the early 1970's and visited me and Rex at our apartment. This must have been about a year before Rex died in February, 1973. Max's brother David was seventeen and later told me that when he was coming to terms with being gay, Max had told him about Rex and me. About ten years later, David hooked up with Sergio -- they are still together after 27 years.

Digression -- I have three cousins named David and at least two of them are gay.

Anyway, it's wonderful being with my cousins on my father's side -- there's a warmth here that reminds me of my paternal grandparents house. My grandfather died when I was was fourteen,so it revives a fifty eight year old memory
Liz and I will be driving back to Heart Lake this evening.

I have to go to New York tomorrow for a meeting, then from Tuesday I'll be back at Heart Lake. Since we don't have mail forwarded, I'll have to go back to NY about once every two weeks, but on my own schedule. I can't wait.

Later this week, I'll catch up on the doings at Lambeth and in the Anglican Communion.

From Mimi's Blog "Wounded Bird"

From MadPriest...

OCICBW... got attacked by a particularly vicious troll last night. It was so bad I had to close down the comments overnight.

He seems to have got his revenge by reporting me as a spam blog to Blogger and they have blocked my blog. I have asked for reinstatement but it's taking up to a week to sort out at the moment.

Would you please notify people of this on your blog and tell them to put it on their blogs. I don't want them thinking I've done a runner or been disappeared by the Church Police.

Jonathan

Cousins

This morning (Friday) Liz and I will be leaving Heart Lake to join some of my cousins for a memorial service for my Aunt Edith, who died two weeks ago. We will drive to Columbia, Maryland -- about a 4-1/2 hour trip, but who knows on a Friday in August -- to the home of my cousin Vicki. I don't know how many of her brothers will be there. Also my cousin Gary has floown up from Florida. The glue that holds that side of my family together is real, but not as thick as on the other side.

The last (and first) time we visited Vicki was in 2004 and we vowed then to be more in touch. I hope we can keep that promise going forward from this time.

I'll have limited, if any, internet access between now and Sunday evening.

Bye.

Death

From Madpriest:
SAD NEWS

I have just received the following. Please cut and paste to your own blogs.

Dear Jonathan,

It is with deep regret that I inform you of the passing of Elizabeth Kaeton's mother, Lydia.

I don't know if you have been told yet. Elizabeth will be flying directly to Massachusetts. Her mom had been ill on and off for the past year. Elizabeth has traveled up to visit her on several near death occasions. We ask all her friends for prayers.

Almighty God, Father/Mother of mercies and giver of all comfort; Deal graciously, we pray you, with all those who mourn, that casting every care of you, they may know the consolation of your love, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I lost my mother about 15 months ago, and even though I was expecting it and she had a full life, I had to live through the grief. Elizabeth is in my prayers.

This weekend, Liz and I are driving to Maryland to gather with some cousins for a memorial service for my Aunt Edith, who had a hard death just two weeks ago. As a child, Aunt Edith was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, and she ended her days as a Unitarian Universalist.

My grandmother wrote this verse in the back of her prayerbook, after her husband and her brothers had all died:

I should utterly have fainted, but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm XXVII, 15

Sunday, July 27

Here, from Walking With Integrity, is a video interviewBishop Gene gave the Washington Post. 'Nuff said.

I have mentioned that Liz and I attend the Heart Lake United Methodist Church while we are here at Heart Lake. We love the people there and in general I find the service truly worshipful. We don't get enough scripture, though -- which is a little weird, I think. This morning, we had, for the Responsive Reading, all of Psalm 111, and for the Scripture Reading, Psalm 84: 1-2 and 4-5.

Saturday afternoon we went to a service at St. Matthew's, Stevensville, the oldest Episcopal Church in the area -- it was consecrated in the 1820's by William White, the second US Episcopal Bishop, who was at the time Bishop of Pennsylvania and Presiding Bishop. The church is now under the care of St. Paul's, Montrose, and the service turned out to be a Eucharist. The celbrant was the interim at St. Paul's, Charles A. Cesaretti. I was a little surprised that there was no mention of the Lambeth Conference -- not even in the intercessions. A GoodSearch on his name shows that Fr. Cesaretti's background certainly makes him more than qualified to speak about Lambeth from a distance.

After church this morning, I caught the second half of Choral Evensong on the BBC. This week it was from Bucjfast Abbey, a Roman Catholic Benedictine Community. During the intercessions, immediately fter the prayer for Pope Benedict, there was a prayer for Archbishop Rowan and the Bishops of the Anglican Communion during the Lambeth Conference.

The holy blisful martir for to seke that hem hath holpen

In this Canterbury Tale, Bishop Gene Robinson recounts his experience making his own pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral while the bishops at the Lambeth Conference were off in London on Thursday. Bishop Gene was told "We can't have any photographs or film of you entering the Cathedral," he said, "because we want this to be a church for ALL people." He thinks the gentleman who made this statement was representing the Dean and Chapter.

I wonder whether the remark was caught on video. In any case, it was very foolish and is part of the general pattern of ill considered and ungenerous actions toward Bishop Gene, and indeed others, during this Lambeth Conference.

Happily for us and for him, Bishop Gene reports on other, more positive, experiences -- with bishops, clergy, and laity -- young and old.

Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
(And Bishops for to seken straunge strondes)
To ferne halwes couth in sondry londes;
And specially,from every shires ende
Of Anglicanlond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

(Prologue to the Canterbury Tales -- modified by EAM)

The Anglican Bishops (and the the Anglican Communion as a whole) is indeed "seke" right now. The Lead quotes Bishop Catherine Roskam as saying "... I confess to you that I almost lost my temper in our Indaba session this morning when one bishop said he thought that our focus on the MDG's was a distraction from the issue of human sexuality." That quote is here on Bishop Catherine's blog (#7) on the Diocese of New York web site; the remark is a sign of the sickness of the communion.

I pray for the healing of the communion, of the church in general, of the bishops. I pray that our faithful US bishops will have strength to carry on. I pray that the dissident bishops will cease their warfare and find peace.

I pray especially for Bishop Gene and Bishop Catherine and for the other blogging bishops, for my diocesan, Bishop Mark and for Presiding Bishop Katharine. I pray for Archbishop Rowan. And I pray for Bishop Bob, Bishop Jack, Bishop John-David, Bishop Martyn, Presiding Bishop Greg, Archbishop Peter, and all other Bishops.

O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men (and women and children); that thou wouldest be pleased to make thay ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally we commend to thy fatherly [that is, parental] goodness, all those who are in anyways afflicted in mind, body, or estate; especially those Anglican Bishops whom I have named, all other Anglican Bishops, Priests, and Deacons and the entire laity, especially LGBTQ persons; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, snd a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

A failure to hope in Christ

Over at The Lead Jim Naughton quotes the Bishop of Central Florida's comments on Monday at the Lambeth Conference. This excerpt from Bishop Howe struck me:

I remind myself of the Archbishop's comment that, "A failure in leadership is a failure to hope in Christ."

An hour long gathering of the American Bishops in mid-afternoon was equally disappointing. Presiding Bishop Schori (sic) called us together "just to check in with each other and share any concerns." Fully two-thirds of our time was spent discussing Gene Robinson's sadness - and the injustice! - over his not being allowed to be part even of this meeting of "his own House."

(Conference organizers responded to objections that: "This is NOT a meeting of the House of Bishops; it is a gathering of American Bishops at a meeting of the Lambeth Conference, and only those invited to the Conference can be part of the gathering.")

There have been several failures of leadership -- most striking is Archbishop Rowan's treatment of the Bishop of New Hampshire.

Bishop Robinson is being shunned and banned, not for something he has done, but for something he is. That is simply wrong. And the responsibility lies not with "comference organizers" but with Rowan Williams.

Here's to you, Bishop Robinson

This morning I woke up at 5 AM with a heavy heart. Yesterday evening I had seen this post by Bishop Gene about his heavy heart as his Sunday started near, but not at, the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. As it turned out, later on Sunday his spirits were lifted at the outdoor Eucharist sponsored by Integrity\Changing Attitudes.

I wanted to write something about it earlier, but I had to drive to New York ,this morning, and I haven't had a chance to get to the computer until now.

When I read Bishop Gene's Sunday morning post, I remembered hearing him say that he thinks we are witnessing the beginning of the end of patriarchy. His exclusion from Lambeth, and from the meeting of the Episcopal Church (USA) bishops is an instance of the kind of "power over" that characterizes patriarchy.

Bishop Gene has taken on a great responsibility -- he is bearing witness on behalf of all LGBTQ chrisitans, but especially LGBTQ Anglicans. And he is being vilified for it. Of course it is hard to bear sometimes. But, God love him, he gets up and keeps on going.

Doin' the Lambeth Walk

Well, Lambeth '08 began yesterday, so I decided to find out about "The Lambeth Walk." Here is a clip of the song as performed in New York at the Tony Awards in 1987.



For those few readers who don't know, Lambeth '08 refers to the decennial meeting of bishops in the Anglican communion -- named after Lambeth Palace, the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The conference this year is actually being held at Canterbury and not in Lambeth. Nonetheless, it is called the Lambeth Conference. A quick Goodsearch reveals a few references to the Lambeth Walk by bloggers and journalists in connection with Archbishop Rowan or the Lambeth Conference, but I haven't spotted anyone who noted that some of the lyrics of the song seem strangely appropriate to the Anglican Circus.

Lambeth you've never seen,
The skies ain't blue, the grass ain't green.
It hasn't got the Mayfair touch,
But that don't matter very much.
We play in a different way,
Not like you but a bit more gay
And when we have a bit of fun
Oh, Boy.

Earlier this week, MadPriest ran a competition for a caption of this picture of Luiz "He looks gay" Coelho and Allie "the Episcojew" Graham, two blogging Lambeth stewards.

Here's my belated entry:

Ev'ry little Lambeth gal
With her little Lambeth pal,
You'll find 'em all doin' the Lambeth walk. Oi!

Miguel Escobar is a member of St, Mary's and is also on the Presiding Bishop's staff. He is leaving tomorrow for the Lambeth Conference where he will be working. A Google search on his full name turned up a letter he wrote to blogger Lee Davenport on behalf of Bishop Katharine. Thing is, Miguel addressed Lee, who is male, as Ms. Davenport. Here is a picture of Miguel from last year:


Here's a verse and chorus for Miguel:

Ev'rything's free and easy,
Do as you darn well pleasey,
Why don't you make your way there,
Go there, stay there,

Once you get down Lambeth way,
Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day,
You'll find yourself doin' the Lambeth walk. Oi!

And here are Bishop Robinson and Elizabeth Kaeton:

Once you get down Lambeth way,
Ev'ry evening, ev'ry day,
You'll find yourself doin' the Lambeth walk. Oi!

Anytime you're Lambeth way
Any evening, any day,
You'll find us all doin' the Lambeth walk. Oi!

Bishop Gene wasn't invited but he's there. Mother Elizabeth is there for the Episcopal Women's Caucus.

As Dogberry said, God save the Foundation!

We play in a different way,
Not like you but a bit more gay
And when we have a bit of fun
Oh, Boy.

One Week

Liz and I have just had quite a week. We went home to New York for five nights starting last Friday -- first Liz had a vestry retreat Friday evening and during the day on Saturday. Liz was also pressed into service to play the piano for the principal Eucharist on Sunday morning at St. Mary's -- which took practice time both on Friday afternoon and Saturday evening.
On Sunday afternoon we took a tour of three of the window bays at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. In the fifty years since I first went to the Cathedral, I had never climbed to the clerestory level -- in fact, I had never been on a tour at all.
On Monday we joined Liz's cousin Oliver and his wife Pat, who were here from put of town, for a visit to the American Museum of Natural History. We hadn't been there in a long time.
On Tuesday, Liz joined three of her high school classmates for lunch in Greenwich, Connecticut. I did the laundry, some shopping, and began loading the car for our return to Heart Lake Wednesday morning.
We returned here yesterday, Wednesday, basically for the remainder of the summer.

That was an exceptionally busy five days for us -- especially for Liz. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Liz developed a cough and squeezed in a doctor's visit Monday afternoon in case it was a treatable infection. It has now developed into a cold -- which I hope I do not catch.

Now that I'm back at Heart Lake, I hope to be able to turn back to blogging a bit more regularly -- and maybe I'll even be able to get some readers.

In memoriam

Last week my aunt Edith went in hospice. Aunt Edith is my father's sister, about 4 1/2 years younger. I have spoken to two of her children, but not in a week, so I have to check for an update tomorrow.
I have also been in touch with two of my cousins, children of my father's older half brother, and I have sent an email to my Aunt Joyce, Edie's younger sister. I'm waiting to hear back from Joyce.

Just as I was typing the last sentence an email arrived from Aunt Joyce that Edie died at 3 pm today. So I'll call my cousin Vicki tomorrow.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Edith Ellen. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive her into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

May her soul and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Finite Time

There seems to be a limit to the number of different things I can keep going at the same time. The White Queen told Alice that in her youth, by practicing for half-an-hour a day, she could sometimes believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Now I am neither in my youth nor is believing things – impossible or otherwise – the difficulty I face, but still ...

This morning I made a list of the things I am working on and it is fairly daunting.

My major volunteer interest is as a director at Morningside Gardens.

I have named four current intellectual interests:

Pope’s Dunciad
Genealogy
Blogging
Literature (i.e., current reading)

But the taxonomy is idiosyncratically arbitrary. Blogging, for example, includes my current theological and biblical field reading – for example, Richard Hooker and Dominic Crossan – as well as my leftish political interests. Blogging also includes the blogs I read. I try to keep up with developments in Anglican land and with some, but not all, of the progressive Anglican blogs.

The Dunciad category shares with Blogging my current reading of Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, inspired by a recent non-wedding in Smithfield, not to mention my currently inactive Dunciad blog. Literature currently consists of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time.

Then there are recreational pursuits. Here I chiefly name music and light fiction.

These are some of the things I do by myself -- they don't include my share of household tasks or much of my joint life with Liz. It's no wonder I make such slow progress.

Time and Again

On Sunday of this week, I posted It’s about Time – and never got to say as much about time as I had planned because I ran out of time.

As I have mentioned, I was recently reelected to the Board of Directors of my housing cooperative – Morningside Gardens in New York City. I won’t go into the politics of it, but I am currently the first Vice President and it fell to me to preside over the monthly board meeting last week. The main business of the meeting was on a topic of great interest to many of our cooperators and I found the technical and the psychological preparation for the meeting to be both demanding and time-consuming.

These days I feel pulled in several directions – in New York, I am trying to bring order to my study – a long-standing project. Then here at Heart Lake Liz and I have a project of organizing things in our cottage. When we bought the cottage in 1987 from a cousin, it was filled with the possessions of my great aunt Esther, including some family memorabilia and items of genealogical interst. Then in 1988, we were basically wiped out by a fire and so we had to start over (fortunately, most of the genealogically important material survived.) We rebuilt at a very low cost, and have gradually been making improvements. Each set of improvements has caused disruption, as things were moved around.

For example, this spring we had a lot of finishing work, including our kitchen, done by a marvelous contractor named Brad Hall. In order to do the work in the kitchen, Brad had to move everything, So now we have an improved work space with new cabinets – and we have to put everything away – in fact, we have to establish a new system of organization.– sort of like after moving.

We still haven’t recovered from the disruption made by earlier improvements – not to mention the stuff we moved here from cleaning out my mother’s house. So it’s possible we will spend a lot of time organizing while we re here to enjoy relaxing, being away from the city, and generally letting down.

I am also pulled in other directions – towards this blog, for example, and towards trying to keep up with other blogs, especially in the progressive Anglican blogosphere. Then there is my literary side – I have more or less stalled on the Alexander Pope project, though it hasn’t gone away. My reflections using the lens of Dominic Crossan’s writings have slowed down also.

People in our building in New York use several shelves in the laundry room as an informal book exchange. Recently Liz found the second and fourth movements of Anthony’ Powell’s A Dance to the Music Of Time. Each of the four movements consists of three of the twelve novels that make up the entire work. I first began reading Dance over forty years ago and read the last few novels as they first appeared in US paperback editions. I am now reading it again. The action takes place over a period of about fifty years as the narrator, Nick, goes from schooldays to early old age. Flashbacks and recollections extend the time covered to more than sixty years. It's a marvelous work and seems to fit my current mood.

That’s all for now. Next time, I'll still be on the topice of time.

It’s about Time

I began my last post, Bartholomew Fair, four days before I finally felt it was in condition to post. In part that’s because I am quite particular in my editing of my own writing and in part because I was also doing several other things. In fact, I do a lot of multitasking. But for a number of reasons, I have not been reading blogs with my usual assiduity in the past few weeks.

The tag at the head of this blog says these are the “thoughts of a progressive Episcopalian,” And indeed that is a good description of where I am coming from, and I write fairly often on churchy topics. By the time I turned back to this blog today, it was Sunday again – LGBT Pride Sunday in New York. A few weeks ago, I thought I would march in the parade, but then Liz and I came to the conclusion that it would really be too much. A few people from St. Mary’s went – we were hit by heavy rains a couple of times this afternoon and I hope they didn’t get drenched, but I suspect they did.

The primary reason I didn’t march today is that Liz and I are going to leave for Heart Lake tomorrow morning – in fact, we would have left today, but we couldn’t get ready in time.

This past week there was something called GAFCON going on in Jerusalem. GAFCON was a meeting of a peculiar group including neo-puritans who want to refight some of the battles that took place within the Church of England after the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 and culminated with the restoration of Charles II in 1660, but mostly characterized by syncretism - they want to raise their cultural aversion to same-sex sex to the level of Christian doctrine.
Tobias has the best comment on them that I have seen. (Well, actually Jim Naughton’s comment at Jake's place quoted from The Lead at Episcopal Cafe -- is a winner.)

I have to stop now, because I’m going to watch Inspector Lewis.

Later